Preparation, Characterization and Spectroscopic Investigations of PEOX-PVOH Blend Films

A stable and free standing polymer blend films of poly (2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) [PEOX] and poly(vinyl alcohol) [PVOH] were prepared by solution casting technique at different weight percentages (70/30, 50/50, 30/70). The prepared blends were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Various optical properties such as absorption band edge, direct and indirect band gap, and optical activation energy were obtained by UV-Vis spectral analysis. FTIR analysis confirms the specific hydrogen bonding between –CH3 groups of PEOX and –OH groups of PVOH, and also the hydrophilic nature of the blends

Data from: A Randomized Synbiotic Trial to Prevent Sepsis Among Infants in Rural India

Deidentified SEPSISF clean data set from randomized Synbiotic Trial with all variables used in SAS analysis. Reference file: Data dictionary, please click on the appended "Readme file" below for study codes used in this analysis

RCT Protocol for: A randomized synbiotic trial to prevent sepsis among infants in rural India

Study protocol: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study to test the effectiveness of a prophylactic oral administration of a L. plantarum + FOS preparation to community-born neonates in reducing the incidence of neonatal sepsis

Data from: A randomized synbiotic trial to prevent sepsis among infants in rural India

Sepsis in early infancy results in one million annual deaths worldwide, most of them in developing countries. No efficient means of prevention is currently available. Here we report on a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of an oral synbiotic preparation (Lactobacillus plantarum plus fructooligosaccharide) in rural Indian newborns. We enrolled 4,556 infants that were at least 2,000 g at birth, at least 35 weeks of gestation, and with no signs of sepsis or other morbidity, and monitored them for 60 days. We show a significant reduction in the primary outcome (combination of sepsis and death) in the treatment arm (risk ratio 0.60, 95% confidence interval 0.48–0.74), with few deaths (4 placebo, 6 synbiotic). Significant reductions were also observed for culture-positive and culture-negative sepsis and lower respiratory tract infections. These findings suggest that a large proportion of neonatal sepsis in developing countries could be effectively prevented using a synbiotic containing L. plantarum ATCC-202195